National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

THE ROAD TO KACHUNG.

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rate of fall was thus I : 31. The valley is very winding. The road runs through the villages Koshkur-aKil, Seiat, Kush-ulek, Kayinlik, Tuküs, Ma-raskan, Yilanlik and Baku, most of them situated at the mouths of tributaries with the same names. The last part of the valley is comparatively narrow, but at Üch-óäldir it is very broad and has many villages, habitations, fields, gardens and groves. The most important cereal seems to be maize, just now ready for the harvest. The brook is here spread in several canals. From here the whole valley is called Üch-óäldir. From the left we notice the tributary Kelik, with a few villages at the confluence. Then there is again a narrow passage, and below it a widening with several large villages. This region is called Kisil-kiya from the red sandstone at the sides. We camped at the village Bälde in the district of Damsir. Here the valley is broad, the mountains lower than before, and there is everywhere land under cultivation.

Maize, barley and turnips are the most important products. Usually a field is first sown with barley, and after it is ripe turnips are planted on the same ground. The fields are sown annually. The ordinary trees are poplar, willow and apricot. Bälde is inhabited by ten families, all Turki. Bälde and Damsir may be reached only by three roads; the one over which we had arrived, the one from below which we were to travel downwards the next day, and the road by the left or western tributary Pouian, the mouth of which is situated a little lower down. The last mentioned road passes by the village of Kendelik, crosses the two passes Tokusart and Kisil-art and reaches the Yarkand-darya just below the confluence of the Raskan-darya with the Taghdumbasli or Shinde River, where the village of Koserab is situated ; here the river is crossed on rafts and the road continues to Charlung and the regions we had visited the previous year.

There is not much snow in winter; at the most it is 2 dm. deep. The summer is said to be the rainy season. North wind brings rain; south wind clear weather. The harvest depends exclusively on the rain; lower down the fields are irrigated from the river. In some dry years the maize harvest is lost. Of wild animals the inhabitants mentioned wolf, fox and hare.

The day's march had crossed the same crystalline rocks as before, at Unkurluk the schist stood in 68° S. 4o° E. ; at Kush-utek the rock was porphyry in 5 3° S. 70°W.; the sandstone lay in 47° N. 80° E. and was soft and rotten; a little below the sandstone followed a white kind of rock, possibly limestone in 4o° N. 80° E.

On September 27th we had our last day in the mountains, travelling 30.5 km. down to Kachung; descending i 6 i m. or from 1,707 to 1,546 m.; a rate of i : i 90. Red sandstone and conglomerate prevail, with sides eroded by rains. The situation is 44° N. 50° E. The hills decrease in altitude and the valley becomes broader. Tashna is a village to our left. The whole valley is full of gravel, and the marks of the highwater are visible at the sides. At Ktsherab, 1,567 m., we leave the